During recent years there has been increasing awareness of, and concern about, water
pollution all over the world, and new approaches towards achieving sustainable
exploitation of water resources have been developed internationally. It is widely agreed
that a properly developed policy framework is a key element in the sound management
of water resources.

Water pollution is having a devastating effect on our rivers, oceans, and lakes. It kills fish and harms the biodiversity of all marine life including plants, crustaceans and marine mammals. Water pollution is responsible for previously plentiful species being driven to the brink of extinction.

Moreover most of the water that we drink comes from treated water derived from rivers, underground water sources and reservoirs. Polluted water is much more difficult, time-consuming and costly to treat in order to make it suitable for drinking. This is another reason to control water pollution.